The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and Healthcare Information Xchange of New York (HIXNY) have announced the ability to offer Direct Messaging between clinicians as part of the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY).
As part of the SHIN-NY, Albany Medical Center will become the first provider in the state to take advantage of Direct Messaging. The service is being enabled through HIXNY, which serves the Capital District and northern New York as the regional health information exchange (HIE).
“Today’s announcement is important for New Yorkers as it marks the deployment of simple, secure messaging that enhances connectivity and targeted care coordination among participants in HIXNY,” Farzad Mostashari, M.D., National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. “This milestone allows providers to reach beyond the borders of existing regional exchanges, and even beyond state lines. The SHIN-NY Direct solution is a critical component for eligible providers to achieve Stage 2 meaningful use in New York while enabling a simple point-to-point exchange of patient health data.”
“The consultation process is an example of the need for this selective information exchange,” Fred Venditti, M.D., vice dean for clinical affairs, Albany Medical Center, and head of the center’s physician faculty practice, added in a statement. “A primary care provider can send to a consultant the relevant clinical data to initiate a referral. The consultant can send the completed consultation note with the important clinical data created as part of the evaluation directly back to the PCP. Direct Messaging provides a next generation clinician-centric way to electronically exchange patient information by and ‘directly’ between clinicians’ EHRs.”
Direct Messaging gives providers an additional tool to coordinate patient care. It complements other HIXNY services, such as enabling providers to access patients’ community health records in their EHRs and receiving discharge summaries, imaging and lab results. To date, HIXNY has powered the exchange of more than 1.4 million medical summary documents for 3,500 connected providers at 200 practice locations.
